At Buckingham Palace on Monday evening, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh hosted a reception to mark the beginning of the 2017 UK-India Year of Culture, which is designed to further cultivate the “deep cultural ties” between the UK and India.

The guests – which included a number of celebrities such as actress Ayesha Dharker and Kunal Nayyar from The Big Bang Theory, as well as people of Indian heritage from the business, fashion, food, arts and sporting worlds – feasted on over 5,000 canapés prepared by the chefs from Buckingham Palace and the oldest Indian restaurant in the UK, Veeraswamy. They were also able to view pieces from the Royal Collection with a connection to India.

Also attending the reception were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Eugenie of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

2017 marks the seventieth anniversary of India’s independence from the United Kingdom. As part of the reception festivities, a projection of a peacock and dancers in bright colours was projected on to the facade of Buckingham Palace.